Maximo Application Suite (MAS) is a comprehensive asset management tool with a wide range of applications, industry solutions, add-ons, and accelerators available to customize MAS to various use cases and industries. The range of solutions and similar naming conventions have created confusion around specific solutions and deciphering which solution contains the proper functionality for you. Specifically, I have struggled to decipher the nuances between the three solutions containing the word health: 'Manage with Health', 'Health and Predict – Utilities', and 'Health, Safety and Environment'. Read below to learn more about these solutions and the differences in purpose and functionality.
The 'Health' application provides functionality in the Maximo Application Suite to improve asset availability by tracking asset health and condition by identifying abnormalities. Through the combination of condition assessment readings and historical asset data, the Health application builds and displays insight into the state of assets to guide professionals on which assets may be at operational risk.
In a previously released version of Maximo Application Suite (MAS v8.4), IBM announced the ability to deploy the 'Health' application functionality within the Manage application instead of an independent application within the Suite. This allows clients to leverage both the Manage and Health functionality by deploying 'Manage with Health', which combines the full functionality of both applications within the Manage infrastructure. The benefit is that Manage with Health reduces the size of the infrastructure footprint while simplifying the integration complexity. When Manage with Health is deployed, the data is pulled from a shared Manage asset database and shared configuration setup. The only use for the standalone Health Application would be if a 3rd party EAM or legacy EAM were to be connected as the asset database (as opposed to Manage).
Read the full IBM Maximo Application Suite ‘Health’ Solution Brief here.
The Health application has often been confused with the Health and Predict – Utilities (HPU) industry solution, which was initially built for use by energy and utility companies. HPU allowed for the creation and use of matrices, templates, and optimization strategies to analyze and predict asset risks. Luckily, this confusion is cleared up with the newly released version of Maximo Application Suite v8.11. The HPU industry solution will cease and no longer be available for deployment in MAS v8.11 and later. The functionality of HPU will be restructured into different areas of the Suite.
The 'Matrices' and the 'Asset Investment Optimizer' functionality were restructured into the base Health application functionality. The last piece of HPU functionality, 'Asset Class Model Templates for Electrical Distribution Assets' has been renamed and made available as the 'IBM Maximo Models for Electrical Distribution' accelerator. This accelerator is available for download from the Red Hat Marketplace with no initial cost for Health and Predict users.
The link to the complete listing for IBM Maximo Models for Electrical Distribution accelerator can be found here.
The last piece of the Maximo Application Suite that adds to this 'Health' confusion is the Manage add-on solution 'Health, Safety and Environment' (HSE). Maximo HSE delivers an add-on to Manage that includes a set of applications built to improve safety, reliability, and environmental controls in compliance with regulations. The main difference between the previously mentioned applications and HSE is that HSE manages the state of the people, processes, and operating environment. HSE is a valuable tool for managing safety reporting, corrective actions, training, change management, environmental hazard reporting, and more while keeping an audit trail of this information.
By understanding the specific roles and functionalities of 'Manage with Health', 'Health and Predict – Utilities', and 'Health, Safety and Environment', you can make more informed decisions about which MAS solutions best fit your needs. Whether enhancing asset health, predicting utility risks, or ensuring safety and environmental compliance, IBM's Maximo Application Suite offers tailored solutions for every industry challenge.
